Journal Article

Purpose - The purpose of this study is to empirically explore how managers differ from non-managers with regard to learning skills as competencies and learning style in a public-sector work setting. The paper also examined how learning style affects competency development. Design/methodology/approach - This study applied Kolb’s experiential learning theory concomitant with its instruments to analyze 12 skills and 4 learning styles. A total of 457 government officers from the Indonesian Ministry of Finance and Ministry of Internal Affairs participated in this study, including 112 managers and 345 non-managers. Findings - The study had four major findings. Although the two groups were similar in technology skills, managers had stronger skills than non-managers in leadership, relationship, helping, sense making, information gathering, information analysis, theory building, quantitative analysis, goal setting, action and initiative. Relationship skills were important for both managers and non-managers. Managers were more abstract and less concrete learners than non-managers. The learning style with more thinking over feeling affected learning skills development much more than the learning style with more acting over reflecting. Originality/value - Using experiential learning theory, this study has clarified what competencies of managers are more developed than those of non-managers and how the two groups learn differently.

Agility seems to have become the new paradigm in banking. To believe most banking organizations while now issue agility. This enthusiasm reflects the announced benefits of agility that justify it into a workhorse not only in terms of internal communication, but also to attract new talent. However, the adoption of agility involves defining new modes of operation and thus begin a transformation process that is not without risks for traditional organizations. But even for new players natively agile, access to skilled resources and employee behaviors alone represent a separate challenge in a market increasingly competitive. [googletranslate_en]

In this work, we study the role of firm characteristics and worker attributes in determining participation in workplace employer‐sponsored training in Canada using the Workplace and Employee Survey (WES) of Statistics Canada. We attempt to answer the following questions using the rich information of firms that are available in WES data: Does firms' provision of workplace training encourage workers' participation in Canada? How do changes in market competition, organizational changes, and technological innovation affect workers' participation in workplace training in Canada? We find that firms' training provision significantly affects workers' participation in Canada. We also find that increased international competition, organizational changes, and technological innovation are significantly correlated with workers' training participation at workplaces. We note that workers in some sectors and in smaller firms have lower workplace training incidence and older, part‐time, production and marketing/sales workers and workers with preschool children participate less in workplace training.

The number of service sector jobs has risen.1 Much of this is because of unfair trade with countries such as China that support manufacturing with direct subsidies or by keeping wages low, but some of it is because of greater productivity.[...]by 2016, the number was 6.4%.2 Union bargaining power is increasingly deployed in resistance to employer-demanded cuts to benefits, particularly health care. Legislation can better protect workers by establishing realistic minimum levels of pay and benefits, restoring a decent work-life balance, and removing the impediments to union organizing.

Are highly educated workers better at locating in areas with high labor demand? To answer this question, I use three decades of U.S. Census data to estimate a McFadden-style model of residential location choice. I test for education differentials in the likelihood that young workers reside in states experiencing positive labor demand shocks at the time these workers entered the labor market. I find effects of changes in state labor demand on college graduate location choice that are several times greater than for high school graduates. Nevertheless, medium-run wage effects of entry labor market conditions for college graduates equal or exceed those of less-educated workers.

How age can be used as a resistance factor or mobilization of actors around the change in Africa? To answer this question, it was conducted a reading of the change process in Africa through the management through the ages. Indeed, African cultures attach particular important to respect elders or elders. The worship of the ancient integral part of children's education in Africa from a young age and he appropriates to adulthood. The basis of this education is based on respect for elders. This worship of the ancient, present in the family, is transposed into professional life as shown around a case study on the process of implementing an ERP software (Navision) in a company. The case was analyzed using a model that combines the contextualist approach and policy and contingent explanatory approaches. Qualitative research and case study strategy were mobilized. The results obtained showed that respect for elders is a particularly important factor for the successful implementation of a management tool like ERP. Also, the involvement of leaders of opinion is it seen as a recognition of the wisdom of age-related. [googletranslate_en]

The article offers information on the expanding support for shorter working week in Great Britain and potential gains it would bring to employee wellbeing and productivity. A survey by TUC shows that the British workforce puts in some of the longest hours in Europe and many employees stayed late at work.

Unemployment exacts a high cost to its victims, not only in lost income, but also in terms of quality of life (insecurity, depression, abandoned families, divorce, suicide and poorer health). It also exacts a high cost to society in terms of lost output, foregone tax revenue, depreciating human capital, and increased costs of welfare, crime and health care. Yet modern wealthy societies have, principally for the sake of price stability and to avoid the budget costs of a full remedy, chosen to tolerate a substantial level of permanent unemployment. This article explores the moral conditions of this social choice and its rationality in terms of social welfare. It makes and develops support for two claims: society's tolerance of involuntary unemployment is morally wrong, and it is socially and economically irrational. It concludes that government should guarantee employment by serving as employer of last resort and where appropriate provide for retraining.

The impact of robots on employment is discussed extensively, for example, within the academic literature and the public domain. Disabled people are known to have problems obtaining employment. The purpose of this study was to analyze how robots were engaged with in relation to the employment situation of disabled people within the academic literature present in the academic databases EBSCO All—an umbrella database that consists of over 70 other databases, Scopus, Science Direct and Web of Science and within n = 300 Canadian newspapers present in the Canadian Newsstand Complete ProQuest database. The study focuses in particular on whether the literature covered engaged with the themes of robots impacting (a) disabled people obtaining employment; (b) disabled people losing employment; (c) robots helping so called abled bodied people in their job to help disabled people; or (d) robots as coworkers of disabled people. The study found that robots were rarely mentioned in relation to the employment situation of disabled people. If they were mentioned the focus was on robots enhancing the employability of disabled people or helping so called abled-bodied people working with disabled clients. Not one article could be found that thematized the potential negative impact of robots on the employability situation of disabled people or the relationship of disabled people and robots as co-workers. The finding of the study is problematic given the already negative employability situation disabled people face.